focus posts
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Leaders who do L.A.P.s (Learn/Apply/Progress) win the race.
November 17th, 2009
If leaders combine a basic understanding of communication, feedback, team development, emotional intelligence, leadership & followership and accountability with an advance skill of applying their learnings daily they will great results! It requires a discipline to first learn, then apply followed by monitoring progress.
The old saying goes something like this: There are two types of leaders — those who practice their learnings and those who don’t.
I watch leaders of corporate teams everyday. I have come to learn that some leaders have a hunger to learn and more importantly, they focus on practicing and applying their learnings in their day to day experiences. These are the leaders who continually get results. There are others, who learn a competence and then seem to discount it. My assumption is – they consider it to be ‘basic’. They operate on an assumption about themselves that they know the skill and they use it regularly and yet, for some strange reason these are the leaders that seem to falter when it comes to results.
Whistler/Blackcomb opened her doors early this season. With a great dump of snow, we were invited to ski on Nov. 14th – one of the earliest season openers of all time. I jumped at the opportunity.
To give you some context on my skiing competence, I broke my leg while ambitiously learning the skill at the age of 2. I learned how to ski on Ontario snow-ice, raced on the Nancy Greene ski league for 6 years and was brought up in a family with two Canadian National ski team members, one a 1976 Olympian. Skiing was and continues to be a life-skill in my family. Needless to say, I can cut a turn, love to ski loud and fast and have both a high level of commitment and competence.
With every season opening, I discipline myself to review the basics. As I ski down the hill for the first few runs, in my head I am reviewing my body position, reconnecting with my ski legs and considering the finer points of this skill. If I don’t take the time to ‘re-learn’, practice and apply what I know, there will be consequences! So on Saturday, I focused on holding my frame – choosing not to be lazy by letting my left shoulder drop half way thru my turn. With this discipline of combining a basic skill; lazy shoulder syndrome with advanced focus of application; practicing with every turn of the day, I will experience more joy, ease and effortlessness skiing this season.
Leaders who choose to do L.A.Ps ultimately get the team results that win the race.
L.earn a skill, whether basic or advanced,
A.pply the learnings during day to day experiences; practicing, making mistakes, practicing again,
P.rogress - measure the progress of the efforts and then return to L to eagerly start again.
Ask yourself the question, will I get better results by doing a few LAPs today?
Need A Workplace Break? Start Smokin.’
October 13th, 2009
CEOs & leaders try to create a workplace culture to match their brand identity. However, management of productivity and results can sometimes set employees into a flurry of activity which, in turn, can detract from the espoused cultural norms.
The brutal fact is that in some workplaces the real cultural norms are – if you want to take a break, you need to start smokin’!
I received an email in response to my “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the most unproductive of them all” post. The commenter (let’s call her Suzy) had the courage to blow the whistle on the unspoken norms in her workplace.
Suzy said the culture did not support the idea of taking a break here and there, going for lunch or just taking 5 minutes to walk around the office. Instead, she described how she found an outlet for a break with one of her smokin’ co-workers. She realized that the smoker took regular smoke breaks throughout the day. So she decided to share an outdoor break with the smoker. It was almost as if the habit of smoking allowed people to take a pause. During these short breaks, Suzy could re-group, re-energize and return to her desk being more focused and productive. The smoker has now left the team.
Suzy no longer has a reason to take a break, not being a smoker.
After reading my blog, Suzy checked her assumptions about the unspoken workplace norms with a couple of her co-workers. They agreed. One gent sheepishly revealed he felt the need to hide if he wanted to take a break.
What are the brutal facts of the workplace culture within your company? Are you allowed to take little breaks so you can be more productive? If you can’t, is your culture contributing to people burning-out?
Do you, CEOs, leaders and executives, have the courage to question the brutal facts of your espoused (this is what we say we do) workplace culture vs. the real culture (this is what we actually do)? Do you think that your culture is burning people out? If you want to find out, ask people anonymously. If the answer is no – great!
If you find out that your company has a burn-out culture. Are you willing to make the necessary changes – promoting individual productivity and team sustainability ?
And finally, please don’t start smoking just to take a break.
Enjoy the Power of Full Engagement by Setting Priorities
August 27th, 2009
One of my absolute favourite books is The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz. In it, they cite a study in which a group of women committed to do a breast self-exam for 30 days.
One group of women said where and when they were going to do the exam, and 100% of those women actually did it. Among those who didn’t say where and when, only 53% completed it.
We can apply this same concept to daily planning & priority-setting. By defining “where and when,” you greatly improve your probability of success. You’ll be much more aware of what those priorities are, and it will be easier to manage your time, eliminate non-urgent activities, and create the momentum you need.
If you and your team are trying to gain more control of your time, here are three steps to stay on track throughout the day.
- Plan (7 minutes): Each morning, decide your top 2 “must do’s” today and write them down
- Realign (60 seconds each hour): Set an alarm to ring every hour and ask yourself, “Did I spend my last 60 minutes on my priority?” If “yes,” congratulate yourself and keep on it. If “no,” refocus.
- Reflect (3 minutes at the end of the day): Evaluate your performance. What did you do well? What happened to distract you? And how can you improve tomorrow?
Remember, if you avoid setting priorities, your time will eroded away. The key is focus, and writing down your priorities can make a tremendous difference.
